Thursday, January 28, 2010

A Scientific Breakthrough in Feelings

"Every Lady Scientist Who Ever Did Anything (until recently)" By Kate Beaton


I love Kate Beaton. Smart, funny, and talented, she goes right to the heart of the funny in history. Even when it isn't really funny. (Yes, I'm one of those people who laughs at what apparently everyone else thinks are inappropriate moments.)

Rosalind Franklin produced much of the data used by Watson and Crick in identifying the double-helix formation of DNA, and apparently had actually beaten them to the punch. Watson and Crick got the Nobel. Rosalind got disappeared until the late 1960s, when Watson published his memoir acknowledging her major contributions. Rosalind died young; she was only 37 when she passed away.

Unfortunately, crap like this is not limited to the pure sciences. Nor is the practice dead, I'm afraid (though things are definitely better than they were).

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